Vellum and Green Vitriol
Copyright © 2007, S. Y. Affolee
The Final Conjuration
Seal XLV
A plain wooden door sat at the top of the stairs. Rhys kicked it in and we stumbled into a plush, dimly lit room. I closed the door behind me which muffled the noise of the imploding underground room and discovered that on this side, the door had been painted a deep green. The room itself was lined with books--an eerily familiar study. It looked like a replica of the Baron's study that I had visited the other day, but it wasn't. This study had a strange octagonal shape to it. At the opposite side of the room from where we had come out of the underground chamber, a body lay face down on a desk.
Cautiously, Rhys approached the desk. "How unfortunate."
I edged close to the desk. The lamp on top of the desk illuminated the back of a head, dark hair. The body sat on a chair and slumped over on the table top as if the man had decided to take a brief nap. But there was a pool of blood slowly congealing next to the head.
"The Baron," I said. "I suppose it is unfortunate, but one must consider the fact that he was in league with Blackthorne."
"That's true."
The door out of the study was unlocked. Beyond, the small parlor room was completely dark. Quietly, we made our way out. The building was silent and dark as we made our way through the hallways. It was as if the entire building was abandoned. Perhaps, in anticipation of the sorcerer's midnight deeds, the entire staff was given the night off on the pretext that it was All Hallow's Eve, a holiday. If felt odd that there was no one guarding the doors--perhaps the sorcerer and his henchmen thought that no one would realize what he would be doing.
And mostly, Blackthorne would be right. Most people didn't believe in the existence of magic unless it was the fake kind espoused by cults and pseudo-religions. If anyone had gone to the authorities to claim that a sorcerer was doing nefarious deeds under their noses, they would be labeled mad and put into Bedlam.
We exited the building to an empty unfamiliar street. No one was about to notice our departure.
"Let's get back to the Grand Canal," Rhys said. "We will be less obvious in a crowd."
I put my hand up to my face. "I've lost my mask down there somewhere."
"I did as well. But I don't think anyone will care much."
"Do you know where we are?"
He pointed outward. I focused my eyes on his finger and noticed that up ahead, across from the street we were standing on, the canal forked past a triangular building. "The costume shop. The Grand Canal isn't too far off."
I walked with Rhys at a sedate pace towards our destination. As we neared it, more and more people crowded the streets.
"Well, I suppose your pursuit of Blackthorne has ended. What will you do now?"
"Find another sorcerer to hunt down, I guess." He hooked his arm around mine to steady me against a group of drunken revelers that had rushed by. "And you found the seventh edition of the Liber Tutelarum, too. Sort of."
"He wasn't what I had expected."
"I'm sorry he just left you like that."
"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault." I looked up at the sky, a veil of stars. "For a long time, I've been searching for family. It just never really dawned on me that there was a possibility that my family wouldn't want me. I've been alone for so long that I had latched onto this notion that if I had found the other editions, I would find my people. Others who were like me. Who would understand me. And now, I suppose I'll have to content myself with the fact that I'll always be alone."
"Well, you aren't alone."
"I'm not?"
Rhys suddenly dragged me into a hard kiss. I found myself grasping the lapels of his greatcoat, letting his warmth sink into me, driving the chill of the night out. When he finally released me, we were both breathing hard. People passed by us like a stream, ignoring what they had just witnessed.
"You and I. We could hunt down sorcerers together. We made a good team bringing down Blackthorne."
I raised an eyebrow. "We didn't bring him down. It was his own ineptitude and inattention to detail."
"Nonetheless, I think we can really deal well with each other. And I…" he ducked his head for a moment, but when he looked back at me, his eyes had a hard glitter to them. "It wouldn't be the same without you."
Whistling and explosive crackling pierced the air. The revelers around us stopped and turned their faces towards the sky. Fireworks.
"Well," I said after a particularly loud one drew in gasps from the crowd. "It would make things easier since we both already live in the same city."
His mouth curved. "I knew you'd be sensible."
Hard footsteps rushed passed us. "Lieutenant! There was just a call from the Constable! Someone has broken into the city library. He said our suspect is dressed up in a pirate costume." One of the policemen broke away from patrolling the crowd and ran after his colleagues.
"I don't suppose Thor led your brother back the way that we had originally come from?"
I put a hand to my eyes and groaned. "The little visit that Septimus had mentioned is going to come sooner than he had planned. We should probably bail him out before he is incarcerated yet again."
Rhys chuckled. "Leave him be, Ana. Your brother never rushed to your help. And with Al by his side, I'm sure he will soon find a way out of his current predicament." He pulled me further into the crowd, in the opposite direction of the library.
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